


if you're still breathing

by GayKravitz



Category: Daredevil (TV), Deadpool - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Oneshot, Post-Endgame, Team Red, Team as Family, Whump, endgame spoilers, suicide implied
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-15 23:55:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18679888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GayKravitz/pseuds/GayKravitz
Summary: ENDGAME SPOILERSPeter gets hurt.





	if you're still breathing

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [giving notice](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14114553) by [deniigiq](https://archiveofourown.org/users/deniigiq/pseuds/deniigiq). 



> I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW I KNOWWWWWWWWI SHOULD BE UPDATING MY OTHER FIC BUT GODDAMNIT ENDGAME GOT ME GOOD
> 
> this is seriously inspired by all of deniigiq's team red stuff because im literally in love with their writing and their verses and their fics and its makes my day every time they post
> 
> SOWWY IF THE CHARACTERIZATION IS OFF THIS IS THE ONLY EVER MCU FIC IVE EVER DONE
> 
> also like, this isnt supposed to tie into the dumpster fires verse, cus at this point they dont know where peter actually lives or much about him besides his face and name

It happens with a bang.

A bang, and a tearing hot pain through Peter’s side.

He cries out immediately, falling from his perch, and slamming into the ground below. The shooter grins but before he can aim again his gun is kicked out of his hand and a sword is thrust through his neck. Peter can’t even find it in him to scold Wade for the death, he has a hand pressed against the pain and his face mashed painfully into the concrete.

Matt is by his side a few minutes later, gently rolling him onto his back and making the searing pain amplify. He whimpers but falls limp immediately. He can hear Wade making kabobs of the remaining robbers, and several more gunshots, before he’s in his vision again with a couple new holes in his suit.

“Fuck.” Wade hisses and Matt just scowls and murmurs an apology before Peter is arching off the pavement and crying out as pressure is applied to his wound. “Hey- hey, Peter, baby boy, you’re okay.”

Peter just whimpers again and grasps blindly at him. It hurts so fucking bad- getting shot always does. He can manage usually but he can feel a hot pool of liquid seeping through his suit now and he knows he wouldn’t be able to make it home and stitch himself up before bleeding out- even with his enhanced healing. “ _Wade_.“

“Shhh, I’ve got you,” Wade smooths the top of his mask. “Red, we need to move him.”

“I _know_.” Matt hisses, pressing harder and making Peter whine. “Kid, you said you live around here?”

See, the thing was, Peter could absolutely under no circumstances let them see where he lived. He couldn’t. He- he couldn’t.

Peter shakes his head violently. “No- no, _no_ -“

“Pete, we’re way past secret identities at this point, buddy.” Wade squints. “You come over to my place every week to play with my cat.”

“You come over to my law firm after school every day.” Matt adds. “We aren’t going to rat on you.”

Peter just shakes his head again. “Can’t,” He repeats. He shivers slightly and gasps sharply when it jostles his wound.

“Fuck, he’s getting colder.” Wade swears.

“If there’s someone at home that doesn’t know about your Spidey problem, you’re just going to have to deal,” Matt tells him, and tries to press even harder. “Because you are literally bleeding out right fucking now.”

Peter debates this with himself in his head for a second. He’s not a fan of dying, but the other option is pretty bad.

But not quite “ _take it to the grave_ ” level bad.

Peter makes the call. He mutters a street name, one he knows is a few blocks away, and Wade sighs a breath of relief. Matt nods sharply.

“This is gonna hurt real bad, kiddo.” Wade warns him and shifts his arms under his body.

Despite the warning, Peter is still not prepared for the movement of being lifted. He starts dry sobbing in Wade’s arms and the older man makes soft shushing noises and begins to lead Matt, who has no idea where he is ever when he’s outside of Hell’s Kitchen

 

 

 

The light jog there felt like both hours and seconds.

Peter’s in and out the way there, mostly out of panic and kinda out of blood loss. He has his head tucked against Wade’s chest, and focus on his breathing because Double D told him to and also because every step made him want to cry harder.

They reach the street and Wade gently gets Peter’s attention. “Okay, bud, where from here?”

He blinks and processes Wade’s question and looks around. “Parking ‘grage.” He slurs, wincing and biting back a cry when Wade quickly turns and heads in after just a moment of hesitation.

He can feel judgement radiating off of both of them immediately when they do. He knows what it looks like, empty and abandoned for years since the Decimation. All the cars had been removed and it was left to rot and build up layers of spray paint, moss, and weeds growing up the side of it.

He directs them to the second to last floor, nearest to the roof, and that’s when he feels Wade go still when they spot it. A little tent, surrounded by various tech in different states of repair and disrepair, a tiny camp stove, his laundry drying on a clothesline, and his unfinished homework.

Peter can’t even find it in himself to hiss at them, but he’s feeling far too sluggish. “First aid. Chair.”

His words snap both Wade and Double D out of it and they quickly set him down on the ground right in front of his tent. He gasps and clenches his fists, and Matt pulls his mask off while Wade fetches the pack.

“Kid,” Matt says in a way that Peter knows he’s going to want to talk later, but Peter goes with the option of pretending he isn’t as lucid as he is.

Peter bites down on his own hand through the process of removing the bullet and putting in sutures, breaking skin at one point and tasting blood. Once it’s done, he’s sweating and barely conscious but can still hear Matt and Wade whispering nearby.

“He’s still in high school, right?”

“Yeah, shit. He got snapped, I know that, but it doesn’t explain…”

They both drop their voices farther, and Peter feels himself drifting. He doesn’t put up much a fight.

 

 

 

He wakes up inside of his tent, still in the suit. The second he’s conscious he presses a hand to his side and feels his wound. It’s not healed enough to remove the sutures, by but tomorrow night he should be back to 100.

It’s too warm inside, he realizes suddenly, and there’s a tiny hole that he can see sunlight through. He sits up off his sleeping bag and quickly gets out of the suit, pulling on a shirt and sweatpants from his small pile of clean clothes.

When he leaves the tent, he finds Wade sitting in his chair, trying to carve a piece of wood with his katana. It’s not working out for him, it seems, as he’s missing a thumb and has a couple of other deep cuts that are already healing.

“Morning, baby boy.” He says, smiling. He’s not wearing his mask, but Peter can’t help but notice it’s also hanging on his clothesline.

Peter squirms. “... Hey.”

Wade gestures with his thumbless hand at his camp stove. “Made breakfast!”

There’s a portion of sausage and eggs left in the pan. Peter didn’t even have any sausage. Or eggs.

“...Thanks.” He nods and grabs the pan. He eats with his hands, and Wade doesn’t even bat an eyelash at him.

“How’s the wound?”

Peter swallows his mouthful. “Good. It’s- it’s healing.”

“That’s good.”

Peter looks back down at the eggs, then looks up at Wade again. “Why are you still here?”

Wade pauses in his whittling and looks at him. “Waiting for Red to get off work.”

Just on time, his spider sense warn him of Matt latching onto the side of the parking garage and pulling himself up- still his full business-lawyer-suit- with a stack of papers in his mouth.

Wade puts down his carving of a… duck? and stands up. “You got ‘em?”

“Yeah,” Matt groans through the paper as he swings his leg over the concrete guard and drops down. He pulls the papers from his mouth, waving them in the air towards Wade, who snatches them up. “Got them mostly filled out, too. Karen is _really_ good at finding records. Like, _scarily_ good."

“I won’t get on her bad side then, I got some weird ass tweets I don’t want her to bring up.” Wade scans his eyes over the packet and grins. “Perfectamundo.” He lays a wet, sloppy kiss on Matt’s cheek and darts away before Double D can punch him for it.

“Sorry, but like, what’s happening right now?” Peter asks, far more confused. “What was that interaction just now?”

Matt looks in Peter’s direction, and even though he can’t really see his eyes, he can feel the wave of pity hit him like a freight train

“This, my sweet boy, are adoption papers.” Wade shows him by shoving them in his face.

Peter feels a sharp tug in his gut. “ _What?_ ”

“Little Red is gonna become your legal guardian, because God knows I would never be allowed to take care of a child.” Wade continues, pretending like Peter isn’t shaking and moving towards him to grab the papers out of his hands. He casually pulls them away and hands them back to Matt, who is continuing to just face his direction. “Plus, he’s the most equipped anyways. Stable job, nice fancy apartment with his boo- all you gotta do is sign!”

“I- I’m-” Peter can’t speak. His chest feels tight and his eyes are watery and he can barely _breathe_.

“Aw, no, Peter, don’t cry, it’s gonna be okay-”

“I’m not- I’m not gonna sign.”

Wade tilted his head, and Matt just sighed as if he expected that answer. Peter takes advantage of their pause and slows his breathing.

“I’m _not_ gonna sign.” Peter says again, more forcefully. “I appreciate, guys, but I- I don’t, actually, sorry that was a lie. Sorry. I just don’t really? See how it’s any of your business?”

Matt purses his lips. “It’s not, but Peter, we can’t just let you live like this.”

“What is wrong with how I live?” Peter hisses, blood hot. “There’s nothing wrong with me. It’s not your fucking business.”

Matt’s face falls into his usual scowl. “I’m not talking about being homeless- I’m talking about not having a stable adult in your life.”

Peter’s gut twists painfully and he jolts. “I- I have one. I told you before, my aunt-”

“Has been missing for the past 5 years.” Matt interrupts. “Exactly one month after the Decimation, May Parker went missing and no one has seen her since. She was added to the list of the dead, right above your name, but there are records of her having gone to work for exactly 4 weeks after before disappearing. My guess is she skipped town and didn’t bother coming back even after this was all reversed a year ago.”

The tears in Peter’s eyes aren’t from anger anymore. He sucks in a breath and presses his palms into his eyes, trying to control his tear ducts. He falls into the chair that Wade had vacated and inhales tightly again.

Matt hesitates before continuing, his voice softer again. “I’ve been where you are now, Peter. Having someone you love leave you is-”

“She’s not missing.” Peter blurts out. “She- Au- Aunt May, she-”

Both Matt and Wade wait for him to gather himself up again. “Miss- Miss Potts told me that Mr. Stark bought out the apartment building after he told her what- what happened to me.” Peter continues, wiping at his eyes.

“He called her. Wasn’t able to look her in the eyes to tell her that her s- that I died, I- I guess. Bought it immediately after. Miss Potts- or, um, Mrs. Stark, now- was with him. And- and- and she’d al- already lost Uncle Ben before and she- she couldn’t handle me being gone, too. She-”

Peter’s sobbing now, throat tight and his entire body jolting with each hiccup. Both Matt and Wade haven’t moved, hadn’t made a noise, the whole time. “With- with no- no one expect- expecting rent anymore, and- and the- the Snap… no- no one fucking _cared_  to- to just _check_.”

Peter is breaking again, just thinking about it. Whenever he did- the _stench_ fills his nostrils and he feels sick all over again and-

He makes it to his trash can before throwing up. He retches for so long after, his eyes streaming and his body trembling and unable to get the scene out his fucking head and oh god, oh fuck, there was nothing fucking left of her-

A hand on his back startles him but he just dry heaves again and spits, letting Wade rub his back and whisper soft things to him. It was so un-Wade-like that he just cried harder at the gentleness and eventually sat back and let him guide him into a hug.

He pressed his face into his shoulder and sobbed and shook and felt Matt take his hand and hold it and he just let himself fall apart for the first time since coming back from the emptiness of the soul stone, since Mr. Starks funeral, since he heard Ned’s voice on his phone and it sounded the exact same as it had 5 years ago, since the last time he walked into his home and found his second mother _dead_ , _she's been dead for years_ -

He cries and sobs and screams at the world, and both Matt and Wade let him because they know what loss is like, and to lose not just two parental figures but _five_  is… it’s a lot. It’s a _lot_.

Peter cries himself out eventually, when his legs are numb from sitting so long and his nose is crusty from snot and his throat hoarse, but he relaxes in Wade’s arms and takes a shuddering breath. Wade is petting his hair and Matt is rubbing the bruised knuckles on his right hand with his thumb and Peter doesn’t feel anything.

“You’ve been keeping this to yourself for a year?” Matt whispers, after Peter calms down but doesn’t stop clinging to him. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

Peter mulls over his answer for a while. “Didn’t feel real.” He murmurs eventually, “I just thought that… maybe she was coming back. Maybe it wasn’t her... maybe not- not everything had been reversed yet.

It- it hit me that she’s really… really gone a- a few months after. And, at that point, I’d already set all this up. And Mr. Stark is gone, too, so I couldn’t-. And I couldn’t call Miss- Mrs- couldn’t call Pepper ‘cus she has a daughter now that she has to take care of by herself ‘cus Mr. Stark... so I. Just didn’t. Tell anyone.”

“Peter, you can’t just not tell someone about a dead body.” Matt says, and Peter buries his face into Wade’s chest again. “No matter what Wade says, you should have told someone.”

“‘M sorry.” Peter chokes. “‘M so sorry.”

Matt sighs, and pulls his hand away, and Peter’s breath catches. Wade continues to just rub his back, completely devoid of any kind words or advice or quips. He’s completely speechless, which is a first in the entire time Peter has known him.

“This complicates things,” Matt says, and Peter pulls away from Wade to look at him. Wade doesn’t let him move more than a couple inches away, keeping a death grip on him while he begins to pet his hair again, a little more violently.

“We’re going to have to report Mrs. Parker’s body, first. Then…” Matt exhales heavily, doing his pacing with his hands on his hips thing. “Try to get custody before you get filtered into the system, I suppose.”

Peter blinks. Then blinks again. “You- you still want to help me?”

“Of course,” Matt’s brows pinch together. “Why wouldn’t we?”

Peter lets out a shaky breath, the tightness in his throat and chest loosening. His eyes try to water but he doesn’t have any tears, so he just blinks a lot.

“You don’t gotta do this alone, baby boy.” Wade mutters to him, speaking for the first time in an hour. “We gotcha now.”

Peter hides his face in Wade’s shoulder again and sobs dryly.

Wade hums and rocks him a little. “I shouldn’t have ever gotten close to you, you little fucking _shitstick_ of a child.”

Peter laughs wetly. “I love you, too, Wade.”

**Author's Note:**

> gaykravitz.tumblr.com


End file.
